The use of wireless communication devices to send and receive information has become increasingly prominent. For example, individuals may utilize communication networks for voice communications, research, entertainment, or for conducting critical business transactions. In addition to these human users, unmanned machines may also be configured to transmit data to other machines. For example, various appliances, toys, vehicles, and other machines could be configured to wirelessly transmit usage information and other data for collection in a database. Interested parties can then access and process the collected usage information from these machines in order to gain some perspective about their use. Likewise, updates and other information may be pushed to machines periodically in order to provide new data for the machine. However, such data transfers are often not time-sensitive and a certain amount of delay in the transfer of the data is acceptable.
Typically, a wireless communication service provider treats requests for data sessions similarly, and assumes that all requests for data sessions require immediate service. If the wireless network does not have the capacity to service a particular data session, the session is denied and another attempt to establish the data session must be re-initiated by the requesting device. However, such attempts to re-initiate data sessions are inefficient, may unnecessarily consume network resources, and deplete battery power due to continually powering up a wireless radio in order to transmit the repetitive data session requests.
Overview
A method of operating a wireless communication network to manage machine-to-machine communications is disclosed. The method comprises, in a communication transceiver system, wirelessly receiving a data packet having a packet header and a packet payload, wherein the packet payload includes a machine-to-machine communication and wherein the packet header includes a machine-to-machine communication indicator representing that the machine-to-machine communication in the packet payload is originated and consumed by machines and not human operators. The method further comprises, in a communication processing system, determining at least one wireless network parameter indicating a state of the wireless communication network. The method further comprises, in the communication processing system, processing the machine-to-machine communication indicator and the wireless network parameter to determine whether to transfer or drop the data packet. The method further comprises, in the communication transceiver system, transferring the data packet over the wireless communication network if the communication processing system determines to transfer the data packet and not transferring the data packet over the wireless communication network if the communication processing system determines not to transfer the data packet.
A communication system for operating a wireless communication network to manage machine-to-machine communications comprises a communication transceiver system and a communication processing system. The communication transceiver system is configured to wirelessly receive a data packet having a packet header and a packet payload, wherein the packet payload includes a machine-to-machine communication and wherein the packet header includes a machine-to-machine communication indicator representing that the machine-to-machine communication in the packet payload is originated and consumed by machines and not human operators. The communication processing system is configured to determine at least one wireless network parameter indicating a state of the wireless communication network, and process the machine-to-machine communication indicator and the wireless network parameter to determine whether to transfer or drop the data packet. The communication transceiver system is configured to transfer the data packet over the wireless communication network if the communication processing system determines to transfer the data packet, and not transfer the data packet over the wireless communication network if the communication processing system determines not to transfer the data packet.